Electronic systems and circuits have made a significant contribution towards the advancement of modern society and are utilized in a number of applications to achieve advantageous results. Numerous electronic technologies such as digital computers, calculators, audio devices, video equipment, and telephone systems facilitate increased productivity and cost reduction in analyzing and communicating data, ideas and trends in most areas of business, science, education and entertainment. Frequently, these activities often involve processing devices consuming power. However, many modern mobile processing devices have limited power supplies, and utilization of ever increasingly sophisticated and complex applications is putting even greater demands on the limited power supplies.
Most conventional approaches to power management involve putting a device in a low or reduced power state. However, entering and exiting a low state typically consumes power, and since most processing activities can not be performed during low power states, power expended inappropriately entering and exiting a low power state is essentially wasted. In addition, the lag in application processing while a system enters and exists a low power state can impact responsiveness to application activities.
Conventional power conservation typically includes monitoring activity and transitioning the logic to the low power state (e.g., power gating) after detecting that the logic has been inactive for a period of time. However, traditional power management approaches usually involve a fixed pre-determined trigger for entering a power reduction state, and the fixed pre-determined triggers are typically set during product design and not adjustable. Typical modern portable devices attempt to apply relatively unsophisticated power saving techniques while running very diverse complex applications with widely varying operating characteristics, resulting in a higher probability of wasted power and reduced responsiveness during inappropriate low power state initiation.